Who needs another story about retaliatory / revenge reviews?

[Becky88]

No one, right?

However I'd like to highlight to @Catherine-Powell that after 7 years of Superhost status without a single miss, I just lost this status in the period ending 3/31/21 due to a single 1-star revenge review from a guest who was charged for damage and extra cleaning for a party she threw against House Rules.  Normally there would be enough total reviews that the occasional revenge review wouldn't matter, but not so last period with bookings way down due to the pandemic.

Total average rating:  4.73

Average rating without revenge review:  4.88

Some here may say...

"It's a feature, not a bug, to dissuade hosts from enforcing House Rules or making damage claims."

"Stop obsessing about ratings and Superhost status, it's just control psychology and status will bounce back quickly anyway."

"If you don't like it, leave the platform."

"In fact, Airbnb wants you to leave because they have a glut of hosts; now more than ever, their biz depends on driving demand (guests), not supply (hosts)."

Maybe so, but I wanna BELIEVE!  C'mon Airbnb, don't crush my naive host dreams.  Please fix this issue!

[Harriet4]

I can't agree with you more.  Many of us have gone through similar situations and we seem to all get the same response.  I did Airbnb in Idaho Falls for four years, lived in the home at the same time and mainted a 5 star. I must admit that this seems to make a big difference as it is a little harder for a guest to get out of line. At least that's what I thought until I moved to Enoch, Utah (at the north end of Cedar City, close to many National Parks and Skiing). 

I began Airbnb again in August 2020 and the first few guests were wonderful and then had two in a row that only wanted to party. The first group were 6 young adults and walked in with more liquor then I could drink in a lifetime and I was 76 at the time. My House rules clearly state "THIS IS NOT A PARTY HOUSE". My husband has kidney disease but luckily is very hard of hearing so had no idea what was going on.  My husband has kidney disease but luckily is very hard of hearing so had no idea what was going on.

They booked for 4 nights and by the fourth day I asked them to leave and I would even give them a full refund so I could actually get some sleep but they refused and the last night they were quieter but did damage to a new queen bedspread and then denied it.  This was all documented through the Airbnb portal but that made no difference in the end because they left a bad review. When I contacted Airbnb about removing the review my answer was the same as the rest of you even though they had all the documentation. 

The second bad review was similar in nature with the same results. What I realized was the two bad reviews were from people who had no reviews of their own so now I must be contacted prior to booking accepting my "House Rules" prior to my approving their booking and so far that has worked.

I live on the main floor and rent the entire 1,800 downstairs of my home but again I am on the property all the time to oversee what is going on. I have thought about putting in its own entrance but decided I like to have control so there are no unexpected guests.

I do believe there is a real injustice to those of us, Super Hosts or not, that received a bad review from partiers especially when it is documented on the Airbnb Portal.

[Trude0]

@Becky88, @Laurie95 :

So sorry to hear what happened to you.

And very demotivating for the rest of us, to see this happen over and over again, to great hosts that Airbnb SHOULD be interested in taking better care of.

I haven’t had any bad reviews yet. But I realize when reading posts like yours, that no matter how hard and smart I work, I could very well be the next host to loose SH status - or even be delisted.

@Sarah977:

I see your point; it would be difficult for Airbnb to always make the correct decision on whether a review from a guest  (incl star rating) should be removed or not. (If they were at all interested in doing this...)  Some cases are clear, some not. But IF they should accidentially remove a review/rating that was actually fair (e.g if the listing us normally super clean/host always very responsive, just not this time), it does not cause much damage to the guest. But it could cause serious damage to the host, if they leave a false/unfair review/rating there.

So you’d think they would realize that it would be better to remove one bad review/rating too many, than too few. IF they would think that keeping great hosts happy and motivated, was beneficial to their business. Which they don’t, by the look of things. They probably think that since we get all/a large share of our bookings from them, and their position is so strong, we will never leave them. But of course, this will not last forever, and they would be wise to realize this. With so many great, but disappointed hosts, they make themselves very vulnerable for growing competition...

I work as a manager in Supply Chain, handling a large number if suppliers, for whoom we are a major customer/partner. Never would I let my team treat any supplier badly/unfairly, just because we think our position is so strong, and the supplier needs our business too badly. Because tomorrow, they may have a new big customer knocking on their door, and leave us all to quickly.  

[Mary996]

To all following this thread:

I see some very realistic material here for proposals to be formulated for the attention of the Exec via the Host Advisory Board #HAB. 

I was just wondering if there might be any items that we broadly agree ?

@Mark-and-Carin0  raise a methodology for 'losing' a negative review and others have suggested an annual 'cull' of one Review as a courtesy (in other threads elsewhere). @Mark-and-Carin0  may I ask... if you didn't have to 'buy' the removal of a negative Review but instead could choose to shed one... would this be acceptable to you?

I really appreciate the practical analysis above of ways to achieve this and very much agree that  'signposting' by a Host who has been forced to make a damages claim be the signal for blocking any Review by the offending Guest. It just seems logical and is quite brilliant!! 

@Trude0  Thanks for further drawing out the benefit of supporting such a practice  and sharing your expertise.

This seems to be to be one thing that we might all feel able to support??????

[Allie179]

AirBnB needs to create a new policy for how to handle REVENGE REVIEWS. My only 2 bad reviews have come from guests who retaliated after I have filed a claim for damages. I did post a reply to the revenge reviews, but that does not make up for the reviews dropping my rating from 4.89 to 4.73 and causing me to lose super host status! I have finally recovered my rating to 4.8 and just yesterday had a guest that left with nearly $3k in damages. Since I know AirBnB won't protect me from a revenge review, I'm now forced with the decision between submitting the claim immediately and risking my rating and future super host status or taking my property offline for 14 days and waiting until after the rating period to submit my claim. Being forced to take my listing offline for 2 weeks in order to submit a claim is a loss of revenue for myself AND for AirBnB. There needs to be a policy that offers protections for hosts against retaliation reviews! How do we get AirBnB to do something about this issue? There are dozens of post threads on this topic. How do we get their attention?

[Till-and-Jutta0]

@Allie179 I replied there to your double-post: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Revenge-Reviews/m-p/1442775#M314989

[Shyne1]

Ok..Superhost as well. 4.97 rating...never had one bad review from over 250 with guests all praising me as a fantastic host.

Then damage to my property and when I asked for repair costs which I had to do before next guest so could'nt wait for him to post his review first I get this 1 star review.

Harkirat Singh

"Unsafe and most terrible experience of our life at this place. Shyne was very unprofessional and kept checking into the house while we were having our food and drinks. He also insisted to drink with us making us very uncomfortable, which we ended up sharing our drink with him couple times in 2 nights. An intruder broke into the house while we were having our bbq at the back and ruined our night by having us getting him arrested. The deck caught fire during altercation with the intruder and police took pictures as evidence. Later I got asked to pay the price for fixing the deck which he knew is caused by the intruder. Very unprofessional and would never recommend anyone to deal with him

Response from Shyne:
I am perplexed by this review as it is so obviously written in malice after being asked to pay for damages caused by a drunken altercation that knocked over stuff they had burning on the back deck(which should'nt have been happening anyway) burning through 3 decking boards and a joist. You rated me a 3 for accuracy( well that is your opinion but not one shared by any other guests), a 1 for checkin(which was simple do do with a keysafe and clear directions sent the day before and I met with you upon arrival),a 3 for cleanliness(the cabin was cleaned spotless as it always is with beds made with clean everything), a 1 for communication even though there was always clear communication of all directions and checkin instructions even to the point of your request of an early checkin which I facilitated without issue, a 3 for location(well that is your opinion but not ANY other reviewers opinion), and a 1 for value, you stayed in a cabin for $150 a night clearly advertised as great for a couple or a family) but you came with 5 of your mates and quite frankly I get asked often by guests why I don't charge more by guests who love the great value I offer. Now on the subject of being unprofessional. I did not intrude upon your food and drinks. I was there twice...once to greet and welcome you to the cabin and once when I was called by the other guests in Blue Wren cabin(who I might add left the next day as their kids were so frightened from the night before and still gave me a great review as they knew none of this was my fault. And have expressed their wanting to come back at a later date Their review as follows Lilesh Lilesh's Review 22 Oct - 24 Oct 2021 Blue Wren at Beautiful Island Beach Cabin was very nice and near to beach. Cabin has everything one needed, absolutely awesome. Shyne was one of the best person I ever met. Unfortunately this time stay was short. however my daughters enjoyed staying and specially feeding Kangaroos.. I would definitely recommend this place and will re-book if visiting KI again.) So I immediately came up to help and sort out the altercation you had on your first night(at which point one of your mates offered me a drink after the police left which I had and then left). Then you also say you felt unsafe yet you stayed the rest of your booking. All I can say is look at all my other reviews. This is the FIRST and ONLY bad review out of 225 reviews all have which have have given me the honor of being a superhost for my entire time hosting."

And the intruder did not break into the house and the police took photos of the deck as I requested them to do that as I had a funny feeling this might come up and that way they could get the cost of the damages back from the said person if they could prove it was even caused by him.

He has continued to make false accusations and I am now threatened with removal of my two properties with out any reason given and a constant run around of emails. And no they haven't covered my repair costs. The guest is always right even when they obviously lie. One suggestion I have is a pre-emptive strike and get all those great reviews off the site before they suspend your account to use elsewhere.

Also I agree with @Mary996 that a bad review after a damages claim should be halted till settled and proven. If they remove me oh well. I have the numbers of all my great guests and can mass send them a message to advise them to contact me direct to book and explaining what happened and the treatment I have received from airbnb. They often refer many guests to my place so all good and I am sure they will be happy to spread the word to everyone else. Social media is a powerful tool when left to run it's course. But we shall wait and see what happens first though I am not holding my breath after reading everyone else's situations.

[Stephen1004]

The new bogus retaliatory review policy adds insult to injury.